Toyota NHRA Winternationals Preview

BROWN TAKES AIM AT THIRD STRAIGHT TITLE – Antron Brown opens the season looking for his third consecutive Top Fuel title and his fourth in the last six years. Arguably, the most dominant driver in American auto racing today, he has led the series in wins in four of the last five seasons – winning twice as many races as any other Top Fuel driver during that time span. He ranks fourth all-time in Top Fuel wins with 45, just seven behind third-place Joe Amato.

KALITTA LOOKS TO REPEAT AT POMONA – After capturing the NHRA Finals at Pomona in November, Doug Kalitta returns to Southern California looking to make it two in a row at Auto Club Raceway. The victory was one of four he captured in 2016 as he finished as the series runner-up to Antron Brown. Kalitta enters the season fifth all-time in Top Fuel wins with 42.

WORSHAM STARTS NEXT CHAPTER – After starting his Funny Car career at Pomona with his family-run team as a 20-year-old in 1990, Del Worsham will come full circle this weekend as he returns to Worsham-Fink Racing in the Lucas Oil Toyota Camry. Worsham left the team after the 2008 season and then went on to become just the third driver in NHRA history to win both the Top Fuel (2011) and Funny Car (2015) world championship. He is one of just four drivers ever to win at Pomona in both Funny Cars and Top Fuel joining Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein and Gary Scelzi.

“We’re going to go through some growing pains as we basically started what might have been a year-long preparation in November. We had success here – finishing second in Funny Car in 2004 and we won as many as five races in a season, but our goal this year is to race all 24 races and earn a spot in the Countdown.”

TODD MAKES SWITCH TO FUNNY CAR – J.R. Todd will make his first career Funny Car start this weekend behind the wheel of the DHL Toyota Camry. Todd, who has nine career Top Fuel victories to his credit, placed fourth in the series last season and now makes the move from his Kalitta dragster over to the team’s Funny Car in the seat that captured the 2015 world championship.

COUGHLIN TO MAKE MELLO YELLO SERIES DEBUT – While J.R. Todd will get his first start in a Funny Car this weekend, Kalitta Motorsports teammate Troy Coughlin Jr. will be making his Mello Yello Drag Racing Series debut behind the wheel of the SealMaster Toyota dragster.